Forty years after independence, Papua New Guinea is the largest single recipient of aid from Australia. Yet Australians seem to be largely ambivalent about the country. Few Australians know the history of our colonial rule in PNG and our ties to the country are being forgotten.
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It is often said that no country is more important to Australia than Indonesia. Ken Ward argues that Australian governments and their critics need to be realistic about an Australia–Indonesia relationship that risks always being crisis-prone and volatile

In this Lowy Institute Paper, Sydney Morning Herald International Editor and Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow Peter Hartcher argues that Australia needs to shake off its 'provincial reflex' and become a mature player in global affairs

In this Lowy Institute Paper, Dr John Edwards, Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, challenges the pessimism about the Australian economy. The mining boom is far from over – and it hasn’t been as important for Australian prosperity as widely believed.
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Cate Sumner and Tim Lindsey explore how the Islamic courts in Indonesia have embraced reform within a judicial system notorious for corruption and incompetence, taking the lead in efforts to deliver decisions that are more accessible, transparent and fair.
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The question is often asked 'What will Islamists do to democracy?' But it seems equally valid to ask 'What might democracy do to Islamists?' Anthony Bubalo, Greg Fealy and Whit Mason examine three different Islamist movements

In this Lowy Institute Paper, Dr Michael Fullilove argues that national diasporas are like ‘world wide webs’, with dense, interlocking strands spanning the globe and binding different individuals, institutions and countries together.
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Southeast Asia's oceans are fast running out of fish, putting the livelihoods of up to 100 million people at risk, leading to more illegal incursions into Australia's northern fisheries and putting the future of shared stocks between Australia and Southeast Asia at grave risk

Since the fall of President Suharto in 1998, Australia-Indonesia relations have been quite volatile with the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia being withdrawn briefly in 2006, the first time this has ever happened

Paul Kelly evaluates John Howard's foreign policy, dealing with his attitudes towards the US, Asia, the use of military power and his strategic approach to Australia's role in the world.
The Paper can be downloaded here.&nbsp

In Lowy Institute Paper 16, entitled 'Beyond the defence of Australia: finding a new balance in Australian strategic policy', Visiting Fellow Professor Hugh White examines the long-term strategic trends facing Australia, and how we can reconcile their conflicting demands.
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In Pitfalls of Papua: understanding the conflict and its place in Australia-Indonesia relations, Dr Rodd McGibbon calls on the Australian government to engage more actively in the public debate in Australia over the Papua conflict

In this Lowy Institute Paper, Dr Michael Fullilove argues that national diasporas are like ‘“world wide webs”’, with dense, interlocking strands spanning the globe and binding different individuals, institutions and countries together. The Paper follows those strands and describes the webs

This is a path-breaking examination of the potential implications for national and regional security that stem from the emerging non-traditional security challenge ‘climate change’ – especially for Australia and its Asia-Pacific neighbourhood

In a Lowy Institute Paper entitled The Paramount Power: China and the Countries of Southeast Asia, Dr Milton Osborne examines how China's relations with Southeast Asia have dramatically changed for the better in the last ten years

This paper is the best short history of the Australia-US alliance. In this paper Peter Edwards AM places the alliance in historical perspective and considers the challenges faced by the alliance in the post-September 11 world.
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Australia has, perhaps, no closer or more complicated a bilateral relationship than that with Papua New Guinea. Australia is deeply entwined with its nearest neighbour and has a major stake in its future

In this 2005 Lowy Institute Paper, Mark Thirlwell surveys the changing international trade landscape. The inability of policymakers to deliver the Doha Round has become a powerful symbol of the growing strains on the multilateral trading system

September 11 2001 and the Bali Bombing in November 2002 evoked images of a militant Islamist wave sweeping the globe from the Middle East, radicalising once peaceful Muslim communities around the world

Japan emerged from World War II as the only country in the world to completely renounce war as a sovereign right. Despite this proscription, Japan’s self-defence forces form a large, technologically advanced military power